Prude & Prejudice (3 page)

“So today I finally get
to meet the
dashing Mr Bradley
. I can hardly wait.” Mary and Cate had
come back from their first meeting with the directors of Organic
Feast
s bubbling over with excitement at
ho
w good looking and charming
both men were. Knowing
her sisters had inherited their mother’s tendency towards exaggeration
,
Prue was doubtful that ei
ther
man would live up to their flattering
reviews
, but sh
e was
very
interested to see them
for herself.

She
could hear that the party
was well underway as t
hey made to the main function room. As soon as they stepped in the door
,
a tall
attractive man
looked over towards them, and breaking
away from the person he was conversing with
,
he
crossed the floor to
greet them.
Prue had to admit that he was
almost as
handsome
as her
sisters had described him
.

“Hello
,
Cate, it’
s great to see you again,
”
he said, giving her a flash of his gorgeous smile.

“You too
,
Mr Bradley
.
It looks like everything is going well here.”

“Please, call me Charles
. Yes, the food is absolutely deli
cious.
I’m glad you’ve arrived
with more as it’s disappearing
very quickly
.” He turned his eyes on Prue.

“Oh, I’m sorry
,
Charles
, this is my sister…
,” Before Cate could finish the introdu
ction their mother
came
flying
across the room and
launched herself
into
the
middle of the
conversation.

“Where on earth have you been
,
girls
? We were begi
nning to get
frantic. Mr Bradley
, I see you’ve
now me
t my daughter
,
Prudence. She’s an orgasmic farmer you know.”
Prue had never wanted the ground to open up and swallow her quite as much as she did at that moment.

“It
is
organic
farmer, M
other,” she said through gritted teeth. “Can I please talk to you for a moment over here?” She took her mother
forcibly
by the arm and pulled her away, trying not to notice that Mr Bradley
wa
s struggling to maintain his composure.

“What is wrong with you
?” she whispered
. “I thought I told you never, under any circumstances
,
to call me Prudence
again
, especially in public
. And how many times do
I have to tell you,
it
’
s
organic
farming.
”

             
“I don’t see why you’re so ashamed,” replied her mother loudly. “Prudence is a lovely name. It’s one of
the four cardinal virtues. I only wish you’d displayed a little bit more of it in your
decision making
over the years, maybe then you wouldn’t still be single
at your age
.
Why
you won’t go out with that lovely
Collins
boy
is beyond me.
”

             
“
Oh my god
, this is hardly the time and place
!
Would you please keep your voi
ce down, you are simply unbelievable
. I’m goin
g downstairs to get the
food.”

             
It was only as she turned away from her mother that she noticed another man standing in close proximity to them.
Like
Mr Bradley he was exceptionally
handsome, and she prayed he was not the othe
r director
, William
Darling.
From the
expression on his face
she could tell
he had heard every word of their conversation and he was highly amused by it.

Prue was still burning with shame
over the incident
when she returned
from the van
with several
heavy
platters of food balanced
precariously
on her arms
. As she looked around for
a space to deposit them she noticed
Charles Bradley and the other
man
conversing nearby. S
he tried to make herself inconspicuous, but it was too late
because Mr Bradley spotted her
.

“I ha
ve to give my
speech in
a minute,” she heard him
say. “
Would you help that young lady
over there with the platters?
” The man
glanced at her briefly before turning away.

“Do
you mean Prudence?”
he
said, and she
could hear the smirk in his voice. “I’m not in the habit of a
ssisting
the
hired
help, especially young ladies with names like Prudence
Higginbottom
.
Besides that, she’s not exactly a delicate flower.
Look at the size of her
arms
,
I bet she
has m
ore upper body strength than me.
”
Prue could barely believe what she was hearing.
Just who exactly did this man think he was, speaking about her so rudely, and within earshot? Even if her unif
orm was highly unflattering and made her look like the size of a small truck, that gave him no right to insult her so openly
.
He was
obviously an arrogant
pig and any other circumstances she would ha
ve told him exactly what she thought of him. As it was she had to bite her tongue and pretend she had heard nothing

Two hours
later she was still fuming
over his rude comments
as she clear
ed away the last of the leftovers
. Although the function was over
,
quite a few people still lingered in the room
,
and
she noticed a
small group gathered around the man she now knew for a fact was William
Darling
. They were all listening to him intently and s
he moved in closer to find out what he was pontificating about.
What she heard caused her to
cover her mouth in shock
.

“They come to this country and take jobs from hardworking people. They are destroying our traditions and our ways of life and they need to
be stopped. We need to send a
message loud and clear that we do not want their kind around here. I think it’s getting to the point now where we have to take some kind of action against them.
Governments are not listening and before long it will be too late.
”

Prue knew several
people
who held similar views
on
immigration
,
including a few in her own family,
but to hear s
om
eone speak so vehemently
against it
at a business function was
truly
shocking to her.
The
kind of
s
entiments
William Darling was expressing
would not have been out of place at a British National Party meeting.
What was even more shocking
was
t
hat all of the people around him
were
smiling and agreeing with every word
he spoke
. In her experience
those involved with
organic
products
tended to be quite liberal in their
political orientation
, but apparently not in this organization.

“As you know, that’s one on the reasons
I wanted to
come here,
to start a grassroots movement
with others
who think like us. People in the city don’t care as much, but out her
e they are closer to the old ways and they
can see what
is happening
to this country. I know Charles
doesn’t agree with
me, but it’s heartening to see how many of you are
prepared to join the fight.
”

So it seemed
William
Darling
was not only rude and arrogant, he was also
a
racist
fool
who stood for everything
Prue despised. She was relieved to know that at
least
Charles
B
radley did not share his views, but it was a small consolation when
Darling
had just announced his plans to ferment racial intolerance and hatred in their peaceful little town.
She made a vow then and there that she would do everything
in her power to stop him and
expose him for the ugly xenophobe that he was.

****

“You’re very quiet tonight
,
Prue,” said Cate as they
set the dinner plates down for the evening meal
.
“Is everything okay?”

“I’m fine, just a bit tired, that’s all. I
wish I could stay here tonight
.
but
I told Bob to take the day off tomorrow
.
I’ll have to be home
to
feed the animals
in the morning
.”
Mary
was the only daughter
who
still live
d
wi
th their parents in the house
attached to the café,
but
it was not uncommon for the other girls to spend the night there. They had grown up on a large
rural
property just outside town,
b
ut when Thomas
Higginbottom
retired while Prue was at university he had wanted something else to occupy him. That’s when the family had hit on the idea of opening a café’ togeth
er, and Prue had moved back to
Merryton
to join them
after she’d completed
her degree
. At first she had lived in town
, but she found that she missed the wide open spaces too much, and
not long afterwards she brought her cottage and fulfilled her dream of running a small organic farm
.

“What did you think of Charles Bradley and
William
Darling
?”
asked Cate.

“I though
t
Charles
Bradley was very nice
and he really seemed to be quite taken with you
, bu
t the other one is
incredibly
rude and arrogant.
He definitely does not live up to his name
because there’s nothing darling about him
.
I hope I don’t have to have any dealings with him in the future because I do
n’t know if I can be civil to him
.”

“I must say I agree with you on this one,
the man was very rude,
” said Mrs
Higginbottom
,
catching the end of their conversation as she came into the kitchen
.
Mary was
not far behind her.

“
Who’s
rude?” she said
, pulling out a chair and sitting at the table.

“Why
,
that Mr
Darling
,”
replied Mrs
Higginbottom
, picking up a spoon and serving food onto the plates
Prue
and Cate
had
laid
out
. “I don’t think he spoke a word to anyone all day. Every time I saw him he was moping in a corner by himself. I asked him a question once and he could barely bring himself to speak to me. Mary, go and call your father and let him know dinner’s ready.”